Why this ride
A 118 km round trip from Rotterdam - roughly 2 h in the saddle. The stops in between: Woerden-Centrum, Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg, Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen and Utrecht-Limes road | De Balije.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Rotterdam day out · Utrecht-Limes road | De Balije
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 118 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 05
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Rotterdam
Rotterdam is a young city by Dutch standards, and that is because the old one was destroyed. German bombers flattened the centre in May 1940, and rather than rebuild a historic town the Dutch built a modern one, bold and experimental, with towers, bridges and cubic houses that tilt on their corners. Nothing here is quiet or pretty in the postcard sense, and that is its appeal. The Erasmus Bridge, a white swan-necked span over the Maas, is the city's symbol, and the Markthal, a vast arched market hall with a ceiling painted in giant fruit and flowers, is the best place to eat. Cheap, quick, varied food is sold from stalls there, and Dutch herring, eaten raw with onion, is available at every street corner.
Read the complete Rotterdam write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Rotterdam is where the day begins. Next is Woerden-Centrum.
2. Woerden-Centrum
Woerden is a small Dutch town on the Oude Rijn, the old Rhine, halfway between Utrecht and Leiden, in the middle of the Green Heart of Holland, a landscape of polders, meadows, ditches and cows. Its centre is a compact old town ringed by canals, with a castle, a big church and a windmill on the old ramparts. The Romans were here too: Woerden lies on the line of the Lower German Limes, and the remains of a Roman fort lie beneath the town centre.
Read the complete Woerden-Centrum write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Woerden-Centrum comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg.
3. Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg
Two thousand years ago the Rhine marked the northern edge of the Roman Empire here, and along its southern bank the army built a chain of forts, watchtowers and a road to link them. In the western suburbs of Utrecht, in the new district of Leidsche Rijn and the old village of De Meern, that road has been found again under the fields, a gravel and clay embankment with ditches either side, and part of it can be traced along the street called Zandweg. Nearby, at Castellum Hoge Woerd, the outline of a Roman fort has been rebuilt in a modern form, with a museum, a theatre and an observatory, and a flat-bottomed Roman river barge, found here in 1997 almost intact and complete with the cargo and personal belongings of its skipper, is on display. The Lower German Limes became a World Heritage site in 2021.
Read the complete Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
At least about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg. Next is Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen.
4. Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen
This is a ride along an old frontier that is now a residential suburb. When the Romans held the lower Rhine, the river itself was the border of the empire, and a chain of forts, watchtowers and roads ran along its south bank. One of the forts stood where Utrecht is now, under the name Traiectum, and another, with a fine reconstruction, lies in the modern district of Leidsche Rijn. The whole frontier, the Lower German Limes, was added to the World Heritage list in 2021. Today it is hard to see anything of it, because the Rhine silted up and shifted, and the land is mostly polder, pasture and new housing estate.
Read the complete Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen, about halfway. Next is Utrecht-Limes road | De Balije.
5. Utrecht-Limes road | De Balije
The Romans built their northern frontier along the Rhine, and in what is now the Netherlands they built a road beside it, running on the natural levee of the river, which was the highest and driest ground. Today the Kromme Rijn, the Crooked Rhine, flows past Utrecht as a small, quiet river, but in the first century it was the main channel, and the road ran alongside it, linking forts and watchtowers from the sea to the Roman towns upstream. At Utrecht there was a fort, Traiectum, from which the city takes its name, and nearby at Vechten stood the larger fort of Fectio, one of the most important along the Dutch stretch of the frontier.
Read the complete Utrecht-Limes road | De Balije write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Utrecht-Limes road | De Balije sits at 58 km, about halfway. Next is back through Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen.
6. back through Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg.
7. back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 64 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg. Next is back through Woerden-Centrum.
8. back through Woerden-Centrum
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Woerden-Centrum write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Woerden-Centrum, late in the day. Next is Rotterdam.
9. Rotterdam
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rotterdam write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 118 km.
Leg by leg
Rotterdam to Woerden-Centrum
Rotterdam → Woerden-Centrum is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Woerden-Centrum to Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg
Woerden-Centrum → Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg to back through Woerden-Centrum
back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg → back through Woerden-Centrum is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Woerden-Centrum to Rotterdam
back through Woerden-Centrum → Rotterdam is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.